Friday, 25 July 2014

Horrible scenes from Beit Hanoun elementary school, northern Gaza strip, after Israeli shelling, blood spread everywhere: photo by Hazem Balousha, 24 July 2014
And
after these things, I saw foure Angels standing on the foure corners of
the Earth, holding the foure windes of the earth, that the winde should
not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till wee haue sealed the seruants of our God in their foreheads.

A
Palestinian man cries over the body of his son who died when a UN
school for refugees was, according to medics, hit by an Israeli tank
shell in the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip, 24 July
2014: photo by Oliver Weiken / EPA, 24 July 2014

And
I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an
hundreth and fourty and foure thousand, of all the tribes of the
children of Israel.

Revelation 7 (KJV 1611)

A
Palestinian helps his son who got injured when a UN school for refugees
was allegedly hit by an Israeli tank shell in the Kamal Adwan hospital
in Beit Lahiya, Gaza Strip: photo by Oliver Weiken / EPA, 24 July 2014

Leibniz
saw the whole world as a collection of beings called monads whose activity consisted in the perception of one another on the basis of a pre-established
harmony
laid down by God.

The onlypeoplewho willescapewill bethose who havethesealof Godon their

foreheadsTC: from Smack, 1972

A Palestinian man
carries a child, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN
school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, into the emergency
room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24,
2014: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills 15 and leaves 200 wounded

Scene, including sheep, inside Beit Hanoun UNRWA school after Israeli tank shells fell: photo by William Booth, 24 July 2014

UN condemns shelling of UNRWA school, saying it asked IDF for time to evacuate civilians, which was not given

International scrutiny of Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip intensified on Thursday when more than 15 Palestinians were
killed and 200 injured in a strike on a UN school in northern Gaza
crowded with hundreds of displaced civilians. Most of the injured
were women and children. Among the dead were a mother and her
one-year-old baby. UN staff had been attempting to organise the school's
evacuation when the attack took place.

Palestinian medics treat a child wounded in an
Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in
the northern Gaza Strip, in the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan
hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells
hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens
more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets
outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured
in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter
from heavy fighting in the area: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the UN, condemned the attack, which came hours
after the agency had warned that Israel's actions in the Palestinian
enclave could constitute war crimes. "Today's attack underscores the
imperative for the killing to stop and to stop now," Ban said.

A
Palestinian man grieves over the death of relatives at the morgue of
the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya on Thursday, July 24, 2014,
after a UN school in the northern Beit Hanun district of the Gaza Strip
was hit by Israeli shelling: photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP, 24 July 2014

The
Israeli military first claimed, in a text sent to journalists, that the
school could have been hit by Hamas missiles that fell short. Later, a
series of tweets from the Israel Defence Forces appeared to confirm the
deaths were the result of an Israeli strike.

I just can’t get over what I have just witnessed at the Kamal Odwan
hospital in Gaza [after the Israeli attack at the UN school] -- so many
injured children: photo via Daniel Rivers, 24 July 2014

"Today Hamas continued firing from Beit Hanoun. The IDF responded by targeting the source of the fire."

Israeli tanks move near the Israel and Gaza
border on Thursday: photo by Dusan Vranic / AP, 24 July 2014

"Last
night, we told Red Cross to evacuate civilians from UNRWA's shelter in
Beit Hanoun btw 10 am and 2pm. UNRWA & Red Cross got the message.
Hamas prevented civilians from evacuating the area during the window
that we gave them."

Palestinian girl, who medics said was wounded in Israeli shelling
at a UN-run school, July 24: photo by Mohammed Salem / Reuters, 24 July
2014

Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations
Relief and Works agency, said there had earlier been "firing around the
compound" and his organisation had asked the Israeli army for time to
evacuate civilians. "We spent much of the day trying to negotiate or to
coordinate a window so that civilians, including our staff, could leave.
That was never granted … and the consequences of that appear to be
tragic." Gunness said the Israeli military were supplied with
coordinates of UN schools where those displaced were sheltering. UN
sources told the Guardian a call was placed to the Israeli military at
10.55am requesting permission to evacuate but their call was not
returned.

The deaths in Beit Hanoun raised the overall Palestinian
death toll in the conflict that began on 8 July to at least 751. Israel
has lost 32 soldiers -- all since 17 July, when it widened its air
campaign into a full-scale ground operation -- and three civilians.

I will never forget the utter shock on these kids' faces -- they thought
they were safe in a UN school: photo via Daniel Rivers, 24 July 2014

Hours after the attack, a trail of bloody footprints could be seen
crossing a deserted playground littered with abandoned possessions.
There were pools of blood both inside and outside the school building;
more blood splashed over wooden school desks.

Palestinian children, wounded in an
Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in
the northern Gaza Strip, lay on the floor of the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan
hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells
hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens
more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets
outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured
in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter
from heavy fighting in the area: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

The Israeli
military, which said it was "reviewing the incident", claimed the
incident had occurred during "heavy combat" in the area and accused
"terrorists" of "using civilian infrastructure and international symbols
as human shields".

Israeli soldiers work on a tank near the Israel
and Gaza border, Thursday 24 July 2014. Israeli tanks and warplanes
bombarded the Gaza Strip on Thursday: photo by Dusan Vranic / AP, 24 July 2014

Although missiles belonging to Hamas and other
armed Palestinian groups in Gaza do sometimes fall short, there was no
visible evidence of debris from broken Palestinian rockets in the
school. The injuries and the number of fatalities were consistent with a
powerful explosion that sent shrapnel tearing through the air, in some
cases causing traumatic amputations.

Children are seen in distress as they are treated in a local
hospital after the UN school attack: photo by ITV News. July 24, 2014

The surrounding neighbourhood
bore evidence of multiple Israeli attacks, including smoke from
numerous artillery rounds and air strikes. One building was entirely
engulfed by flames.

Thought I’d share this photo from today’s harrowing scenes. Three to a stretcher, the innocent victims of the UN school attack: photo via Daniel Rivers, 24 July 2014

Thursday's assault on the school -- one of the grimmest incidents of
the war -- occurred at about 2.50pm as the playground was crowded with
families waiting to be ferried to safety. According to survivors, one
shell landed in the schoolyard followed by several more rounds that hit
the upper stories of the building.

A Palestinian man carries a child, wounded in an
Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in
the northern Gaza Strip, towards the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan
hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells
hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens
more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets
outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured
in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter
from heavy fighting in the area: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Most of the wounded were moved
initially to a local hospital where terrified women and children clung
to each other, waiting for news of relatives. A shell exploded about 50
metres from the hospital building as they waited.

A Palestinian man carries a child, wounded in an
Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in
the northern Gaza Strip, towards the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan
hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells
hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens
more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets
outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured
in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter
from heavy fighting in the area: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Israeli tanks move near the Israel and Gaza
border on Thursday: photo by Dusan Vranic / AP, 24 July 2014

Nour Hamid, 17,
was hoping for news of her sister. As she attempted to comfort her
terrified nephew, she said: "We were packing up to leave when the attack
happened. We were standing outside when they started hitting us, some
of the women holding their babies. My sister-in-law was one of the
injured. There were bodies everywhere, most of them women and children."

A
Palestinian child, wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a
U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, cries at the
emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday,
July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells hit the compound, killing more than a
dozen people and wounding dozens more who were seeking shelter from
fierce clashes on the streets outside. Gaza health official Ashraf
al-Kidra says the dead and injured in the school compound were among
hundreds of people seeking shelter from heavy fighting in the area: photo byLefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Laila
al-Shinbari told Reuters: "All of us sat in one place when suddenly
four shells landed on our heads … Bodies were on the ground, [there was]
blood and screams. My son is dead and all my relatives are wounded
including my other kids."

The body of Ali al-Shibari, a
10-year-old Palestinian child who was killed after a UN school in the
northern Beit Hanun district of the Gaza Strip was hit by an Israeli
shell, lies wrapped in shrouds at the morgue of the Kamal Adwan hospital
in Beit Lahiya on July 24, 2014: photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP, 24 July 2014

Sabah Kafarna, 35, had also been
sheltering at the school. "At about 11.30 someone from the municipality
came to tell us that we were going to be moved because it was too
dangerous. But the buses didn't come. That's why [there were] so many
people all outside when the shells landed," she said. "The shells came
one after the other. I was inside by the windows when they smashed."

A Palestinian child,
wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in
Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, cries at the emergency room of
the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

Ayman
Hamdan, medical director at Beit Hanoun hospital, told the Guardian
that medical staff were treating multiple shrapnel injuries and damage
to internal organs. "Some of the bodies were blown apart. Such a
massacre requires more than one hospital to deal with it," she said.

A relative of two-year old Lamar Radiya holds her body at the morgue of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia: photo by Marco Longari / AFP,, 24 July 2014

The dead were ferried along with the most seriously injured in a
fleet of ambulances to the relative safety of the Kamal Adwan hospital
in Beit Lahia. Frantic relatives crowded the morgue looking for loved
ones. The hospital's emergency room was plunged into chaos as doctors
struggled to cope with the influx.

A Palestinian medic at the Kamal
Adwan hospital holds two children wounded in Thursday’s shelling the Israeli attack on the U.N. school in Beit Hanoun: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis,/ AP, 24 July 2014

One father, his white singlet
stained with blood, sat on the floor cradling the body of his injured
daughter as another relative held a drip above her. Two more children
were brought in -- one girl injured by shrapnel, and another body whose
torso was covered in blood.

Palestinian children, wounded in an
Israeli strike on a compound housing a U.N. school in Beit Hanoun, in
the northern Gaza Strip, lay on the floor of the emergency room of the Kamal Adwan
hospital in Beit Lahiya, Thursday, July 24, 2014. Israeli tank shells
hit the compound, killing more than a dozen people and wounding dozens
more who were seeking shelter from fierce clashes on the streets
outside. Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra says the dead and injured
in the school compound were among hundreds of people seeking shelter
from heavy fighting in the area: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis / AP, 24 July 2014

A six-month-old baby boy is treated for shrapnel wounds after the UN school attack: photo by Sean Swan / ITV News, 24 July 2014Five-year-old Yacov Shimbari lies in shock after the UN school attack: photo by Jonathan Wald / ITV News. July 24, 2014Casualties are lying all over the hospital after the UN school attack: photo by Jonathan Wald / ITV News. July 24, 2014

Palestinian girl who lost a relative in an attack on a U.N. school in
Gaza on Thursday cries at a hospital in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza
Strip: photo by Adel Hana / AP, 24 July 2014

A mother comforts her daughter at a
hospital in Jabaliya after Israeli shelling hit a U.N-run school
sheltering Palestinian refugees: photo by Finbarr O’Reilly / Reuters, 24 July 2014

A Palestinian man cries in the morgue
of Kamal Adwan hospital after identifying the body of a relative killed
in an Israeli strike: Lefteris Pitarakis / AP. 24 July 2014

A mother comforts her child in a hospital a few hundred yards from the U.N. school hit by Israeli shelling: photo by Finbarr O’Reilly / Reuters, 24 July 2014

A relative of a victim of the Israeli shelling at a UN school mourns at a hospital in Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip: photo by Finbarr O’Reilly / Reuters, 24 July 20144

Relatives of Palestinians killed by the Israeli strike at a UN school mourn outside a hospital morgue in the northern Gaza Strip: photo by Mohammed Salem / Reuters, 24 July 2014

A Palestinian child cries at the
emergency room of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, after being
wounded in the Israeli attack on the U.N. school in Beit Hanoun: photo by Lefteris Pitarakis,/ AP, 24 July 2014

A Palestinian boy, whom medics said was wounded in the U.N school attack, crouches at a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip: photo by Mohamed Salem / Reuters, 24 July 2014

A Palestinian man carries a baby after being evacuated from a UN-run school that was hit by Israeli shelling: photo by Reuters, 24 July 2014

Worried Palestinians wait outside a hospital ward where a wounded girl is being treated: photo by Reuters, 24 July 2014

A man holds a girl, whom medics said was injured in the Israeli shelling of the school: photo by Reuters, 24 July 2014

A boy who was wounded in an Israeli strike on a compound housing a UN school in Beit Hanoun arrives at the al-Shifa hospital: photo by AFP, 24 July 2014A trail of blood is seen in the courtyard of a UN School in Beit Hanoun after it was hit by an Israeli tank shell: photo by AFP, 24 July 2014

Other than fulminating our fury here and walking around the day with leaden hearts, having "not looked away" at these photos, dear Tom, Angelica and everyone, what are we to do?

The root is the "root cause" of this holocaust, and our US funding and support, wrenched tightly at the private parts by the Israeli lobbies (some even say Lincoln "sold" America to banking "families" to back the Civil War, etc.), and until it's curtailed, Israel, as it has for its history, can thumb its nose at the rest of the world and continue taking out its misplaced vengeance on the native populations of the land they covet. (It's not a covenant, ladies and gentlemen, it's a coveting. Most of the Israelis are even atheists, which I deem abrogates their "holy" right to be there...)

So continuing to follow the only vivid coverage I've seen anywhere, here at this site, dear Clarks, that it truly boggles the mind, my question, even as a writer of poems, is the famous unresolved one for people of consciousness and conscience, what do we do?

Thank you Maureen and Abdal-Hayy for having the courage and compassion to break the silence.

Today's charade and pretence over the humanitarian pause that wasn't indicates the gravity of the problem. Americans absolutely refuse any opportunity to learn the unpleasant truth about this racist slaughter which they are not only implicitly condoning (by their craven silence) , but plainly financing, and protecting with effective procedural immunity by preventing, in American mainstream media, the dissemination of any accurate information whatsoever.

The reporting here now follows a familiar pattern. For every Israel war crime there is a cynical Israeli propaganda cover story, slavishly reported by what was once called "the press", but now, in effect, reduced to a misinformation staff working in the service of a war machine.

And somebody else's war machine at that -- not that anybody's war machine is more admirable than anybody else's.

The incessant and unbelievably cynical blaming of the carnage on the victims is surely salt in their wounds.

Anyone who wishes to exhaust and depress themselves can find unmistakable graphic evidence of atrocities continuing and in fact actually increasing in sheer volume of harm by the day.

So much easier to give it the casual "whatever" or "so what else is new" or "so what?" or "Gaza -- what's that?"

And then there's the "serves them right" response. In which the true present character of this people, once famed for democracy and fairness and (for heaven's sake) a certain sympathy for the underdog, is painfully exposed.

Hardened international reporters and photojournalists who have worked in war zones round the world are reacting curiously in Gaza, now. Anger and revulsion as well as fear and exhaustion now affect many who have witnessed scenes beyond anything in their experience. A number of photos seen here were taken by photojournalists who have begun posting on private Twitter accounts images which they did not or more likely could not post in their mainstream media outlets. Their making this horrible reality real for us, at considerable risk to their own safety and convenience, is a helpful reminder that the human heart has not yet been uprooted by the global war machinery.

__

As to the news, here are a few bits from recent hours. The source of the first two is Chris Gunness, UN relief director. The second concerns the death today of another humanitarian aid worker.

A UN team had to cut short a visit to the scene of Thursday's attack on a school in Beit Hanoun when it encountered gunfire, UNRWA spokesperson Chris Gunness says in a statement. The Israeli army had been notified of the mission in advance, he says:

At 1400 today an UNRWA team which included an international weapons expert went to the school at Beit Hanoun which came under attack yesterday causing multiple deaths and injury. The aim of the visit to the site was to survey the scene in the aftermath of the incident. The Israeli army had been notified in advance about the composition of the team, the time and purpose of the visit. The mission had to be cut short and the team was forced to leave the area after gunfire around the school. UNRWA regrets not being able complete even this initial assessment. We will attempt to visit the site when the situation allows. We again underline our call for an immediate and comprehensive investigation.

__

Hashem Abu Maria, 46, killed today in Beit Ummar near Hebron by Israeli soldiers, is reported to have worked with Defence for Children, an NGO for Palestinian kids.

Brad Parker @baparkr Follow

Shocked to learn that @DCIPalestine colleague #HashemAbuMaria was killed by Israeli forces in #BeitOmmar. Devastating.

If Leibniz were among us now, I hope he'd be giving his home entertainment centre a wide berth, just on the off chance that some bit of news might have escaped the propaganda filter and be about to score a direct hit on his beautiful theory.

I suppose photos showing the true ghastly nature of what is being wrought upon Gaza ought to be prefaced with a warning.

That seems the way, currently, the warning before the havoc.We've had to endure the endless insufferable crowing by the Zionist butchers about their own humane cautionary techniques -- well, terror techniques really -- of "knocking on the roof", thus providing "due warning" to those whose lives, memories and history are about to be erased.

It was disappointing to hear the surprisingly exultant reactions, on July 20, of Netanyahu and Avi Lerner, after the first push on the ground into Gaza.

That no one in the increasingly cowed "international community" then pushed back obviously encouraged the offensive, which since then has morphed in stages, its execution unimpaired by the horrendous count in civilian lives and casualties, not to mention the wanton destruction of what there was of infrastructure among the subjugated people.

Whose ability to withstand is almost as astonishing as the Israeli lust for blood.

Daniel, Yr questions are mine, and everyone else's as well, brother. Only that I do not know, who I (should) address them to, anymore.

A casual scroll to check the comments under this "knock knock" video sent me spiraling into an endless abyss of racial hatred-- it is ridiculous how prejudices against Islam, based on the West's liberal notions of rationality (it is appropriate in several ways, that Tom, you mention Leibniz), is becoming a universal excuse to celebrate Israel's offensive.